This time on the podcast, Nora Young talks about the Pebble smart watch. We used the Pebble as a topical 'hook' to a recent piece on watches on Spark, and that got me thinking about what makes this great looking little watch so appealing. It reminded Cathi Bond of the Little Printer, a smart, digital solution that looks analog, that looks friendly. Nora mentions all the self-tracking tools and health monitors that were at CES recently (see, for example, Technology Review's coverage here).
Cathi Bond talks about the RP-VITA which is a remote presence robot that can wander health care facility halls, checking in on patients, thus allowing doctors who are far away to see patients virtually (via Medgadget). It can even allow the remote physician to consult with other doctors. Interestingly, it's from the iRobot people, who brought you the Roomba.
And, Nora has a quick hit: Swisshotel has a handy dandy 'single serving' website that notes handy tips for travellers to different cultures: stuff like tipping, gestures, and dos and don'ts (via Lifehacker). Nora thinks lots more businesses will do this sort of thing for branding purposes - useful info connected to your product's brand that can live as an app. Have you seen any good examples of this?